Investigating a ballot proposal

[childe]

Since I'm going to be out of town on voting day this cycle, I requested an absentee voting ballot. While I was online checking the status ( https://michigan.gov/vote ), I clicked on the sample ballot to see how involved it would be

Comments

[angel726]

I know that people have tried to take over the sunken gardens several times. I'm a big fan of them, and I don't want them to go anywhere. I'm not a Lansing resident anymore, but I'm watching that ballot measure with interest.

[bunny_hugger]

They're supposedly going to "move" the sunken gardens. But you can't move a garden. What they are really going to do is create a facsimile of the gardens. A garden's location is part of its identity.

ETA: City Pulse has been covering this controversy extensively. Here are some articles...
http://lansingcitypulse.com/search-articles-scott+park.html

Habitat for Humanity has decided not to take the house, BTW.

[childe]

Do you have a link for the Habitat for Humanity's decision?

[bunny_hugger]

Not in detail, but it's referenced in the most recent article I linked above.

[childe]

So, if I'm reading this correctly, the battle is preservation vs. infrastructure? And the only thing stopping them from preserving the Scott site, and using the Land Bank site (with the REOTOWN sign, IIRC), is that the land has been optioned for an extended stay hotel, which may or may not be built?

Since the Land Bank site makes infinitely more sense, and would avoid this kerfluffle entirely, I have to think that there's some serious money involved in the hotel option (or serious lawyers) to prevent the City from getting Ingham County to release the land to them.

[sabatoa]

There's extensive discussion over the BWL and Scott Gardens here: http://develop.metrolansing.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=170&page=1

You will have to scroll a bit to get into it but the discussion spans months.